MQA Live Launches In Austin With Exclusive Jake Isaac Livestream

An invite-only audience in Austin experienced the debut of “MQA Live”, a new way for fans to connect to musicians. Jake Isaac and his band performed from London's Rocket Studios – the first time a live performance has been streamed in real time using MQA's technology. The performance was listened to live in an Austin home on a variety of devices to recreate everyday listening environments.

MQA is launching its “Live” product to enable music fans to connect in studio quality to their favourite artists, wherever and whenever the artists are performing. Fans can listen to a live concert in its original quality, as if they were standing in the venue. MQA Live offers access to gigs across different countries and time zones for loyal fans, as well as opening up concerts to new audiences.

Mike Jbara, MQA CEO, stated, “MQA Live offers fans the authenticated sound direct from the venue, so conveniently that it can fit into their everyday lifestyle, wherever they are and however they chose to listen. The home environment in Austin, with a variety of playback devices, was a great way to experience Jake’s special performance, and excited those in attendance to imagine a new age of social and appointment listening.”

Jake Isaac, singer-songwriter and musician, added, “I feel really lucky to have been part of the first MQA Live experience. After the performance, the MQA team played the recording of the live stream back for me and I was blown away with how powerful it felt.”

Why audio only

MQA Live is an audio-streaming tool. Recent research shows that 95% of YouTube/Vevo music users listen to music without watching the video (Midia Research) and 87% people listen to music on radio (IFPI: Connecting With Music), supporting the fact that a high quality audio-only experience fits into the lifestyle of music fans. Incidentally, it also dramatically reduces the expenses associated with video production and broadcasting, making it something that can be offered for every show and every artist in every venue.

How it works

MQA has applied its ground-breaking technology to make a real time encoder, which connects easily to the audio system of the location and then can be sent into the chosen delivery platform of promoters and venue owners. The only additional equipment required is MQA's live encoder box at the venue to encode the performance. This keeps production costs low, while the MQA encoding process preserves audio quality and addresses bandwidth issues. MQA music will stream and play back on any device, although for optimum results and the full MQA ‘unfold’, use devices or software from the growing number of MQA partners.

Jake Isaac’s performance was listened to ‘at home’ in Austin on the following devices:

"I have spent many hours with Bob, listening to original recordings and being constantly amazed by the incredible sense of space and clarity brought by MQA."

Morten Lindberg, Producer and Grammy multi-nominee

"We have done many blind comparisons of my original high-resolution masters with and without the MQA process. MQA is the consistent winner."

Alan Silverman, Mastering Engineer

"Digital music has given users the ability to hold “a thousand songs in their pocket” for over a decade. But that convenience came at the sacrifice of quality. MQA gives the user the ability to keep the convenience of a large library in their pocket, without sacrificing the quality of the music."

Pioneer, on their new XDP-100R digital audio player

Awards

MQA are proud to have already received a range of awards and accolades.